Wall St recoils over Obama bank plans January 21, 2010 US stocks suffered their worst one-day percentage drop since October yesterday as US President Barack Obama proposed tough restrictions on banks that would squeeze profits. Major banks slid, with Goldman Sachs falling 4.1 per cent despite posting stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter results, and JPMorgan Chase shed 6.6 per cent, after Obama proposed limiting how banks invest their [...]
Q&A INSOLVENCY January 21, 2010 Q. I’m thinking of setting up a business, but what would happen if it all went wrong? Will I be declared bankrupt? A.The best way to protect yourself is to set up as a limited company right from the start, says Tim Carter, head of insolvency at law firm Stevens & Bolton. By doing this [...]
Dragon takes to the barricades January 21, 2010 CONTESTANTS on the BBC’s Dragon’s Den dream of getting one of the show’s successful entrepreneurs on board to support their business. They could be in luck. Earlier this week, former Dragon Doug Richard launched the rather grandly titled The Entrepreneurs’ Manifesto and Declaration of Rights. “A spectre is haunting the United Kingdom – the spectre [...]
The billion pound money manager January 21, 2010 LIFE could have been different for Chris Oulton, but in 1982 he answered an advert at the back of the Saturday Telegraph, which offered an “unusual opportunity” to a bright young graduate. He applied and within weeks he had the job and was thrust into the world of commodity trading. He found himself working for [...]
Cadbury deal is first in an M&A boom for 2010 January 20, 2010 KRAFT’S takeover of Cadbury will not change our love of Dairy Milks and Creme Eggs, but it will take time before we start thinking of Cadbury as an American, rather than a British, institution. Before the year is out, though, we might have to get used to other much-loved businesses going the same way. Market-watchers [...]
A DERIVATIVE THAT covers all the bases January 20, 2010 ALEXANDRE HOUPERT HEAD OF LISTED PRODUCTS, NORTHERN EUROPE, SOCIETE GENERALE THERE was a time when people were frightened to enter into investments. The financial crisis meant that many investors took a painful hit, and elected to steer clear of the markets. But 18 months on, and investors are starting to come back. As before, many [...]
The unstoppable rise of exchange-traded funds January 20, 2010 WHEN one of Europe’s largest hedge funds, Marshall Wace, announced earlier this week that it would be launching an exchange-traded fund (ETF) to track its flagship strategy, it was further confirmation that ETFs are entering the mainstream on this side of the Atlantic. In their standard form, ETFs passively track the performance of an underlying [...]
NEW BREED OF ETFS SPREAD DEFAULT RISK January 20, 2010 MARK WEEKS CHIEF EXECUTIVE, ETF EXCHANGE FOLLOWING the financial crisis and the collapse of Lehman Brothers, investors are more keenly aware of the problems that can ensue if a financial institution were to collapse. Those using passive investment tools such as exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are also more conscious about liquidity and index replication. ETFs have [...]
Lending restrictions in China turn the screw on the miners January 20, 2010 TOP shares recorded a three-week closing low yesterday as more signs of fiscal tightening in China hurt commodity stocks. The FTSE 100 closed down 92.34 points, or 1.7 per cent, at 5,420.80 – the lowest closing level since December 31, 2009. It posted its biggest one-day fall in a month. The index is up 57 [...]
Dow suffers worst 2010 trading drop January 20, 2010 THE Dow suffered its worst drop of 2010 yesterday day as US stocks succumbed to fears that China’s curbs on bank lending might jeopardize the global economic recovery, while IBM’s outlook sparked caution about the technology sector. Chinese authorities have ordered some major banks to curb their lending over the rest of this month after [...]
